At the Top of a Slippery Slope
-The Ibexian Athletic Association's main offices in Ibex are a sight to behold. A shining tower of luxury on the outside, with an extravagant and immaculately pristine interior, it's definitely an upgrade from Panacea's previous work conditions. Here, she has her own office, as well as a lab to work in just down the corridor, where she's been given that mysterious compound, CT-009 to work on. There are drones at her disposal, and every manner of state-of-the-art equipment. Everything is clean, and...it's almost too good to be true. -The medic certainly isn't blind to how far 'up' she has come, though she fears it will be her downfall at times. Other times she's certain that she can still get some good out of the situation. Quite likely she has started just doing some preliminary tests of the compound, double checking to make sure that what she find is consistent with what she's been told. After all, even the best of scientists and doctors make mistakes, yes. Besides, it will familiarize herself with it further than what she learned through the first examination. -So far, so good. Everything seems to be exactly as she was promised. The pay is good, everyone seems nice, and she hasn't caught wind of anything suspicious or terrible. Or both. There are a few other technicians and research types who share the wing with her...they all seem pleasant enough as well. The compound certainly seems be what Cipher had said it was. It was an emotional suppressor, but was toxic in high doses. According to the experimental records, Blurr had begun to develop a resistance to its effects, and thus Cipher had heightened the dose, though that had created problems with its negative side effects. Speaking of Blurr, he happens to be coming by this particular cycle. He stops momentarily in the doorway to her lab as she's working and leans casually against it, peering at her. "So you like it here?" he inquires amiably. -At the moment Blurr came in, Panacea was doing a cross reference of the parts of the compound and any other elements and compounds that serve similiar functions, working on a thorough and steady list of possible methods to improve the compound. While she hasn't done a lot of lab work since her training days, she has a pretty good head for the science part of it, mostly because she's quite motivated. Not being greedy by nature, she isn't cutting any corners. When Blurr speaks up, she raises her head from the datapad. "Oh, hello Blurr," she says with a little smile. "The facilities here are quite wonderful actually." She places the datapad on the desk in front of her and clasps her hands on the smooth surface. "Please, come in." -Blurr enters, nodding. "I'm glad you like it, certainly an improvement over Kaon, right?" he chuckles. "So how's it coming?" -"Well, I wasn't in Kaon for /my/ health," Panacea says a bit dryly. "I'm not sure what all you've been told about me being here, but I would say things are going well enough, even if I haven't really resolved anything yet." She shrugs her shoulders. "I hardly expected to get any leads right away since there have been others working on things longer than I have." -"Oh, I'm sure it'll take time." Blurr replies. "No one expects you to come up with the miracle drug in two cycles." He shrugs. "So you get moved into your new place and everything?" -"I didn't have much to move," Panacea admits. "So it wasn't hard to settle. I'm not exactly overburdened with wordly goods or anything." She motions for Blurr to sit if he likes. There's a few different stools around at the various stations of her lab. "And how about you? Feel better now that you see I'm still in one piece?" she asks. -Blurr nods quickly, and sits down at her invitation. "Yeah, umm...about that," he suddenly looks slightly abashed. "I wanted to apologize for overreacting back there. If you'd known me for longer you'd probably have expected it, but..." he shakes his head. "It's a bad habit of mine. I mean, you know I'm different, not just physically, but psychologically, too." -Panacea nods her head at this. "Well, it makes sense. You can't go at those speeds and not be changed by it psyschologically," she reasons. "But it just might be that you can accomplish so much more in a single cycle, and thus learn so much more, that your ability to absorb and process has been run to the ground. I'm not a psychologist, but I do know that there's a lot that affects the body that can also affect the mind." -"Well I have to psychologically different in order to move that fast at all, without crashing into everything, that is." Blurr clarifies. He leans back slightly. "So yeah, sorry if I freaked you out." Um -yeah-. "I had a moment of irrational fear, you were never at risk for anything all -that- bad." -"Well, that depends on what you were thinking is all /that/ bad," Panacea says. "An imagination can be a terrible thing at times." She shrugs. "The important thing is, I'm safe for now, and so are you." She tilts her head to the side. "Though you should probably take things as easy as you can for a bit. Your colour really was quite bad that one cycle." -Blurr waves a dismissive hand. "I'm fine, don't worry about it, Pan." he grins. "I think you'll find that I'm a little more resilient than most. I've definitely had worse. As for imagination, at least it's just that. Definitely being irrational. So if I get crazy like that again just tell me to calm down." -Panacea shakes her head. "Ah, ah, ah, now it officially IS my job to worry about it," she says with a hint of mischief in her optics. "And I will nag you mercilessly if I find you playing fast and lose with your health." -Blurr laughs. "Well I guess I can't stop you now. But you just stay focused on the project mostly." Suddenly, some noise can be heard in the hallway outside. Running footsteps, and shouting. The speedster's head turns toward the door. "Oh--that doesn't sound good!" In a flash he's standing in the doorway again. -Panacea isn't sure what that was about, but she rises to her feet to go see what is going on. Of course, to the Speedster, she probably seems rather slow and deliberate, but that's okay, everyone probably does. Moments later she's behind him in the doorway. -Yeah, she does, but -everyone- is slow to Blurr, anyway. Out in the hallway there appears to be a small and frantic looking mech making a run for the elevators at the end of the corridor. A group of technicians behind him are shouting and running after him. Blurr shakes his head and turns to Panacea briefly. "Hang on," He then signals to the techs. "I got this!" he calls out, and dashes out into the hallway in front of the runner, stun weapons out. -Panacea watches with mute interest as the scene unfolds. She doesn't know why this guy is running, or why he's looking so frantic, but even so, it seems a bit strange that Blurr is pulling a weapon out already. Maybe he has super hearing as well. -Blurr fires a high-voltage stream of electrons from the weapon, which strikes the mech dead on before he could try to dodge or duck behind anything. With a yelp he collapses onto the floor, temporarily paralyzed. The technicians catch up. "Phew, thanks Blurr. Thought he was gonna get away." The racer grins. "Sure thing." They start to drag the incapacitated mech back in the direction they had come. Though paralyzed, he seemed to still be conscious. He stares at Panacea. "h-help...p-please..." he whispers. The others either don't hear it or are ignoring it. -"Whoa, wait a second. What just happened?" Panacea asks. She can't really resist the phrase, 'help please'. "How did you know you had to shoot him at all? I don't recall anyone /saying/ anything." Forcing herself to wear a smile she doesn't really feel, she adds, "Are you secretly telepathic too?" Attempt at joke number one. -The small mech is starting to whimper, a noise starting up in his internals that is akin to sobbing. "Hey hey." Blurr runs over and pats him. "Shhh....it's okay." he smiles gently and nods. "Everything is okay." Then he's back by Pan. "Oh, I don't know, he was one of the pit workers but he got injured in a crash recently. Our medics were working on him, but he must have had a bad reaction to the anesthetics or something. I'm not too sure, might want to ask someone in the repair bays." He shrugs. Likely story. -Panacea certainly does want to investigate, not so much because she's suspicious but because she wants to help if she can. At the very least, it will give her a look at what sort of job had been done on him already. Everything is something she can learn from, so she moves to follow them. "Still, it seems a little strange that you would, as the saying goes, shoot first and ask questions later," she points out. Except, he didn't even ask the questions; he just shot. -Blurr keeps pace with her. "Nah, it's just a stun weapon, it doesn't do any actual damage, just incapacitates." he reasons. "Which is just what they needed." They come to a large set of doors on the lower floor, with an access panel next to it. The technicians turn around. "Uh, sorry but this area is off-limits to anyone without level six authorization." One of them informs the pair. Blurr shrugs. "Well, guess we'll head back to your office, then." He says, nodding at Pan and starting back off the way they'd come. -Panacea was going to wait to bring this up, but since the opportunity is presenting itself, she'll take it. Despite her beliefs there is a part of her that is very opportunistic. "Speaking of stun weapons, how hard is it to get one?" she asks. "It's been suggested that with the planet as crazy as it is, I should have some sort of defense. But I don't want to hurt anyone," she says earnest. "A stun weapon would give me that chance." She stares for a moment at the technicians, then nods her head. "Alright," she says reluctantly, though her spark is giving her a prod. She resolves to keep an optic open for that particular worker in the future. -"Oh, not too hard, I'd imagine." Blurr answers as they make their way back upstairs. "I could see about getting one for you, I'm sure I could find one in the Decagon armories." As for the worker, Pan is not likely to see him again unless she slips into the 'authorized personnel only' area... -Panacea isn't planning on going anywhere she shouldn't, especially if they are well labled and well guarded. However, she'll still keep her audials open for any mention of him. Pleading for help got her attention for sure. Still, she focuses on what Blurr is saying. "That might be a good idea. And then I'd have to learn to use it. Because I can't help anyone if I get attacked for whatever reason." -"Well I'll see what I can do." Blurr grins. "Anyway, good talking to you. Better get back to it, though!" And then zoom! He's gone.